On Tuesday, the NHL announced the six players chosen in the fan vote for the upcoming All-Star Game. Only the Penguins and Blackhawks were represented, as Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang andMarc-Andre Fleury will represent Pittsburgh, while Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith will go from Chicago.

In last week’s voting update, Bruins goaltender Tim Thomaswas fourth among netminders in votes. He still has the opportunity to be one of the 36 additional All-Stars announced on Jan. 11. Thomas leads the league with a .945 save percentage and a 1.80 goals-against average. He is tied for the NHL lead with five shutouts.

Fleury, meanwhile is fifth in the league with a 2.31 GAA and 12th in the league with a .918 save percentage. He has 17 wins to Thomas’ 18. Detroit’s Jimmy Howard leads the NHL with 20 wins.

Horton, who had not scored a goal in nine games entering the night, beat Leafs goaltender James Reimer from the high slot at 7:56 of the second period and set up a Savard one-timer later in the period. Mikhail Grabovski got the Leafs on the board in the first period, but his breakaway goal was the extent of the Leafs’ scoring.

Rask made 36 saves in improving to 3-7-1 on the season. The Bruins have now wrapped up their five-game road trip and will return to the Garden to face the Wild on Thursday.

WHAT WENT RIGHT FOR THE BRUINS

– As good as it is to see Horton get on the scoring sheet, ultimately the breakout was by his entire line. Since Claude Julien put the Milan Lucic-Savard-Horton line together following the team’s Dec. 20 loss to the Ducks, the line hadn’t produced a single goal. Two from the line on Monday was a good sign that Julien was wise in not blowing up the line after earlier, quieter showings.

– If Rask’s confidence was in question, he can leave Monday night’s game knowing that he came up big in Toronto. Rask got sharper throughout the night, stopping an onslaught of from the Leafs early in the third that consisted of two quick shots from Phil Kesseland a follow-up bid from Tyler Bozak at 15:44. He later came up huge against Colby Armstrong with just over 11 minutes remaining.

-Tyler Seguin had only two shots on goal and was a minus-1 (it was his shot that Luke Schenn blocked and sent up to Grabovski), but the youngster is playing a more confident game of late. Perhaps even more apparent than it was in Saturday’s two-point performance, Seguin doesn’t look like a rookie overly concerned with limiting mistakes. Confidence undoubtedly will yield improved stats.

– The Bruins have not lost in regulation since the aforementioned Dec. 20 game. They took eight of 10 points on their five-game road trip after beating the Thrashers at home on Dec. 23.
WHAT WENT WRONG FOR THE BRUINS

-Mark Recchigot caught in a line change on Grabovski’s goal, though the play was the result of many players being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The defense, assuming Seguin’s shot would go through, wasn’t anticipating the play going the other way, and with Grabovski streaking, it was a perfect storm for the Leafs.

– The Bruins had only one power play on the night, the result of a first-period interference call on Mike Komiserik, and went 0-for-1 with the man advantage. Over the last three games, the B’s have gone 0-for-6 on the power play.

– Who knew Canada was more out of touch with North American rock music than the Czech Republic? Metallica’s “I Disappear” could be heard late in the third period coming from the Air Canada Centre speakers. O2 Arena in Prague was a little closer to relevant rock with their painful Nirvana overkill.

Nathan Horton’s play has been improved of late, but the scoring sheet hadn’t suggested it until he helped the Bruins build a 2-1 lead over the Leafs in the second period.

After a nine-game goal drought, Horton sent a puck to Dennis Seidenberg in the point before doing what made him so popular at the beginning of his Boston tenure: finding his way to the high slot and snapping a shot past bodies and in. The goal, which came at 7:56 of the period, was his 12th of the season.

At 15:30, Marc Savard took a feed from Horton to beat Reimer on a one-timer from the high slot. Milan Lucic, who also got an assist on the play, picked up his first point in eight games.

The B’s outshot the Leafs, 17-8, in the period and have outshot the Leafs, 24-19, though two.

Mikhail Grabovski has the Maple Leafs leading Tuukka Rask and the Bruins after a period of play. It’s Rask’s second consecutive start, and the youngster looks a bit more comfortable through a period than he did when he allowed three tallies to the Sabres in the first 20 minutes on Saturday.

Tyler Seguinhad a very good opportunity from the slot with about six minutes remaining when he took a pass from behind the net from Mark Recchi. Seguin missed wide, and later in the play fired another one from the point that was blocked by Luke Schenn. With the Bruins stuck in either the offensive zone or on a line change, Schenn hit a streaking Grabovski, who went in alone on Rask and and gave the Leafs the lead at 14:08.

Gregory Campbell, who returned to the lineup after being sick and missing the last games, started on a line with Seguin and Shawn Thornton. Brad Marchandbegan the night with Recchi and Patrice Bergeron, the line on which he played vs. Atlanta and Buffalo, but a little more than midway through the period the Merlot Line of Marchand-Campbell-Thornton was reunited.

James Reimer has saved all seven Bruins shots thus far, and the B’s are 0-for-1 on the power play.

Tuukka Raskwill attempt to last more than a period when he and the Bruins take on the Maple Leafs Monday night in Buffalo. The Bruins are coming off a 7-6 shootout loss to the Sabres in which each B’s goaltender served up three goals.

WHERE IT’S AT

- The Maple Leafs haven’t proven capable of winning consistently at any venue this season, and Air Canada Centre is no different. Toronto is 8-9-3 there and has dropped its last three at home.

- The Bruins are 11-5-3 on the road and are wrapping up a five-game road trip. The Bruins have gotten points in each game of their current trip, grabbing wins vs. Florida and Tampa and taking shootout losses against the Thrashers and Sabres.

NOTABLE NUMBERS

- Tyler Seguin is coming off his first multi-point game, as he had a goal and an assist in the third period vs. Buffalo. He scored vs. the Leafs back on Oct. 28, and if he gets on the scoring sheet Monday, he’ll have had points in consecutive games for the third time this season.

- The best plus/minus rating of any Leafs player comes from Mikhail Grabovski, at a plus-3. Only four Toronto players have positive ratings, and two of them (Joey Crabb and Darryl Boyce) have played in five games or less.

By comparison, all but four players to dress for the B’s this year have a positive rating. Andrew Ferenceleads the Bruins with a plus-15, while Marc Savard has a team-worst minus-8.

- One of Gregory Campbell‘s three goals this season came in the team’s 3-2 shootout loss to the Leafs on Dec. 4. After missing the last two games with an illness, Campbell practiced Sunday and is expected to return to the B’s lineup.

STORYLINES GOING IN

- There isn’t a more tired storyline than the Phil Kessel/Boston one, so we’ll get that out of the way by noting that Kessel, who still hasn’t scored against the Bruins, did sink the B’s in that shootout last month.

In 37 games this year, the former Bruin has 14 goals and 11 assists for 25 points.

- These games vs. the Leafs are important for more than one reason, as the B’s still have Toronto’s first-round pick in the coming draft. They’ll need to limit the points to see that it ends up being a top-three choice. At 32 points, the Leafs currently have the fourth-worst record in the league.

- This will be just the first time all season that Rask has been given back-to-back starts. This could have been a stretch in which the youngster’s confidence was helped by a spike in time, but that went out the window when Rask was yanked after just one period Saturday.

According to reports out of Toronto, Tuukka Rask was the first Bruins goaltender off the ice at their morning skate, suggesting the 23-year-old will be the B’s starting goalie when they take on the Maple Leafs.

Rask made his 10th start of the season on Saturday, allowing three goals to the Sabres on 16 shots in the first period before getting pulled. This technically marks the first time this season that Rask has started two games in a row. Tim Thomas has played in the last eight games, seven of which he started.

Tuukka Rask, making his first start since Dec. 15, was pulled from the game after allowing three goals on 16 shots in the first period. The B’s led, 4-3, at the time, and went on to lose, 7-6, to the Sabres in a shootout.

Following the game, coach Claude Juliendefended the decision in his post-game interview on NESN.

“We felt that we needed some bigger saves,” Julien said. “He hasn’t played in a while, but still, we needed to win this hockey game, so we thought it was important to make that change.”